Broken Constellations

A Story by reece

A bullied boy and abused preacher's kid befriend one another and struggle to not exact revenge on their abusers.

Along our nation's Bible Belt, tucked in between the rolling hills of the Smoky Mountains and the coasts of North Carolina lies the quiet town of Astraya. The struggling old mill town is finding new life with the installation of a new state of the art Neuroscience Research Center. With seemingly a church on every corner and small population, the town's prides are it's low crime rate and phenomenal athletic program; both of which earn the town national recognition and prestigious awards. In the constant spotlight, the inhabitants here resort to whispers and turn blind eyes and backs to anything unsavory or controversial.

To Astraya High School senior Tim Blackweilder, bullying is nothing new really. Every since his father walked out of his school play in fourth grade and never returned, Tim has been the butt of constant ridicule around town. Bullied on social media and even worse in between classes, he is labeled weird and an outcast; unwanted by his peers and even worse, his own father. Even though he is an only child, Tim hardly gets to see his mom, as her desire to never be left alone again allows the men in her life to come before Tim. Clinically depressed and bitter, he self-medicates with his anxiety prescriptions, retreats to the virtual world of gaming, all while sketching and plotting out elaborate fantasies of revenge in his journal.
Growing up as the son of two pentecostal preachers in Astraya hasn't always been easy for Brian Parker. His father, Todd, is a local youth pastor and Brian's mom Beverly is a preacher and women's domestic violence advocate. So more or less, he has been expected to "have it all together". Captain of the wrestling team, with both athletic and academic scholarships lined up for him, Brian seemingly has the ideal life. Blessed and cursed with Hyper Sensitive Empathy Syndrome and a high IQ, Brian often becomes overwhelmed by his body's ability to pick up on other's emotions and relents to be a loner by choice. Granted with an internship at the Research Center, his dreams of revolutionizing the field of neuroscience and behavioral therapy keeping him motivated and away from the common teenage dramas.
One October afternoon, after a bullying incident in the school bathroom nearly claims his life, Tim decides he has had enough and will get his revenge. He rushes home to carry out his murderous plot, but a "coincidental" bump with Brian in the school hallway derails his plans. Tim's intense hatred and pain is picked up by Brian who, after a little investigating, discovers Tim' murderous plot. After determining that his name isn't on Tim's list, Brian offers Tim behavioral therapy counseling sessions at the Research Center or prison. Faced with the certainty of prison time without his revenge, Tim reluctantly accepts Brian's offer and consents to a 26-week intervention program. Brian sees an opportunity to introduce his controversial new software, ERIE, to the medical community. By detecting vibrations in our heart's electromagnetic field caused by thought or emotion, and modeled from Brian's DNA, the emotional artificial intelligent software has the abilities of a natural empath: to detect with high accuracy emotions and intent. ERIE's potential applications are limitless and while Brian hopes Tim responds well to treatment, if he doesn't, Brian has another darker use for Tim. He will manipulate Tim into adding Brian's abusive dad's name to Tim's murder list.
Before and after school sessions start where Tim is introduced to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and emotional control techniques. By identifying negative thought patterns and belief systems, halt and reverse negative thoughts and emotions stemming from traumatic experiences, which in turn, directly affects our mental emotional and physical well-being. Due to Tim's non-existing support system at home, he is slow responding to therapy so Brian increases the frequency of sessions till the two are spending before, during and after school together. An intriguing bond develops and Tim's condition improves drastically so that by week 10, Tim is off of his medications completely.
Week 14 finds Tim free of anxiety attacks, cigarettes and involved in a budding romance. Tagging along the night Brian grudgingly has to help out, Tim begins to take a liking to Brian's church family. The hypocrisy and secrets begin to take a toll on Brian as intense repressed memories surface and force him to undergo private hypnosis sessions with ERIE. Tim notices Brian's abusive behaviors but a nearly perfect wrestling record and a reuniting with his high school sweetheart isn't nearly enough to lighten Brian's increasing mood.
Brian tears his ACL while qualifying for states and nothing can stop his downward spiral as he uses various negative methods to cope. Forced to work alot from his lab at home, he tries in vain to block out the abuse he hears upstairs. Tim struggles stay above and not regress, but slowly and surely he is being pulled into Brian's painful black hole. A breakup and the deaths of two close to him, and the frayed fabric of Brian's life finally snaps. He lashes out at all around him, resulting in his ostracization from family and church.
It's the last week of school and Brian is absent from both classes and sessions with Tim, electing to consume himself with tragic headlines of parental abuse and neglect. Spurred by the consequences of unaccountability among parents and leadership, he updates his software even more, crossing dangerous ethical lines. Tim, unable to reach him, stops by Brian's house but finds the basement lab unoccupied and on impulse attempts to access Brian's protected files on his computer. To his surprise, his fingerprint is accepted and now with full access this own case files, Tim sees Brian's plan to have him kill Todd. He also sees the modifications Brian has made to ERIE and Brian's private hypnosis sessions where he details his sexual abuse by Todd. Brian's return prompts an intense confrontation as Tim stands his ground against Brian's barrage of emotional, mental and ultimately, physical abuse to get Tim to back down. As Tim looks on Brian with compassion and empathy, Brian releases his hold around Tim's neck and with eyes brimming releases Tim as his patient. "Now get out" he croaks, as Tim, silently walks up the stairs and out of his life.
The next evening happens to be the Friday before graduation and Brian is in his basement lab when his mother urgently summons him to the church. He arrives and sees that the police have the street blocked off but yet the church is nearly full. Inside right under where Brian's dad is sitting is a bomb. Believing Tim is responsible, Brian secretly tries to reach him but Tim's number is disconnected. Spurred by guilt and fear, Todd confesses to his acts of abuse, while the bomb is found to be a dud. Todd is arrested and while an investigation finds nothing linking Brian to the bomb scare, no one can seem to recall Tim but Brian. Tim's house appears to have been abandoned for years and there is no traces of him on the internet or in Brian's case files.
Bewildered, Brian closes down his lab, packs a bag and his research and tries one last place on his way out of town. There under the old bridge overlooking the railroad tracks where they would stare up at the constellations on nights similar to this, Brian finds a small red journal with his name on it. In it Tim tells how it had to be either him or Brian and Brian had too much to offer the world, if only he will forgive. Brian is encouraged to forgive- not because anyone else deserves it, but because Brian deserves the peace that comes from it. He boards a train, opens Tim's book and begin reading Tim's story about a society where ERIE has been introduced, welcomed, mandated then despised. The train whistles off towards Anywhere U.S.A. while Brian, lost in the book, never puts together that he and Tim are the same person.
Whether suffering from anxiety disorders, domestic violence, or other personal traumatic experiences, CBT methods can help with altering our thought patterns and emotions. This novel focuses on these proven psychotherapy techniques and methods that can help us identify, halt, and even reverse negative thinking so that we can gain control over our emotions and ultimately, our actions. Broken Constellations is my personal journey from agony and hatred to eventually, forgiveness and peace.